in having been the firſt Surgeon that had done ſo, (for before this, it was their Cuſtom to change their Surgeons, when they deſired it, after having ſerved a Time, and never obliged them to ſign, but he was reſolved to break thro’ this, for the good of thoſe who were to follow,) ſwearing immediately upon it, he was now, he hoped, as great a Rogue as any of them.
Captain Jo. Trahern, and George Fenn, his Mate, depoſed, the Priſoner to have taken out of the King Solomon, their Surgeon’s capital Inſtruments, ſome Medicines, and a Back-Gammon Table; which latter became the Means of a Quarrel between one Wincon, and he, whoſe Property they ſhould be, and were yielded to the Priſoner.
Jo. Sharp, Maſter of the Elizabeth, heard the Priſoner aſk Roberts leave to force Comry, his Surgeon, from him, which was accordingly done, and with him, carried alſo ſome of the Ship’s Medicines: But what gave a fuller Proof of the diſhoneſty of his Principles, was, the treacherous Deſign he had formed of running away with the Prize, in her Paſſage to Cape Corſo, though he had been treated with all Humanity, and very unlike a Priſoner, on Account of his Employ and better Education, which had rendred him leſs to be ſuſpected.
Mr. Child, (acquitted) depos’d, that in their Paſſage from the Iſland of St. Thomas, in the Fortune Prize, this Priſoner was ſeveral Times tempting him, into Meaſures of riſing with the Negroes, and killing the Swallow’s People, ſhewing him, how eaſily the white Men might be demoliſhed, and a new Company raiſed at Angola, and that Part of the Coaſt, for,
ſays he, I underſtand how to navigate a Ship, and can ſoon teach you to ſteer; and is it not better to do this, than to go back to Cape-Corſo, and be hanged and Sun-dryed?
To
